BENGALURU: The Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) has stayed the suspension of Assistant Commissioner of Police of Yeshwantpur sub-division, Ashwath Narayan Pise, and Police Inspector of Soladevanahalli station Pravin Babu for two weeks.
Both the officials were suspended on charges of dereliction of duty following an incident in Soladevanahalli, where a Tanzanian girl student was allegedly attacked by a mob after a road accident.
The Inspector was suspended on February 6, while the ACP was suspended the next day. The ACP was suspended on the grounds that he failed to direct the Inspector to trace the victim after the incident, and had shown negligence towards duty.
When the hearing of the petitions filed by both the officials came up on Tuesday, the counsel representing that the officials, submitted that as per the Karnataka Police Manual, there should be a serious misconduct on the part of an official to initiate disciplinary action like suspension.
He defended that both the officials, on Sunday, were deputed for the bandobust duty of Invest Karnataka, which was scheduled to begin from Wednesday, and they were not at the spot when the incident took place.
Further, he argued that the victims themselves had made a voluntary statement that they filed an official police complaint only two days after the incident, as they felt threatened by the locals.
He defended that none of the actions of the suspended officers amounted to dereliction of duty and did not call for suspension. Following the submission, the KAT Bench of Moosa Kunhi Nayarmoole passed an order staying the suspension order for two weeks.
